Rhyl rockers The Alarm have announced a virtual ‘Christmas Gathering’ this weekend. The livestreamed gig takes place this Saturday 19th December from 8pm, with tickets available to purchase online here.
Only 5 days to go until @thealarm Christmas Gathering comes to your living room! The band will be playing live & loud and there are lots of surprises & an exclusive world premiere!!! Don’t delay….. book your Christmas Gathering Concert Tickets now @ https://t.co/9Ywl31WhDm pic.twitter.com/gaOhTkY1cJ
— thealarm.com (@thealarm) December 14, 2020
A statement released on the band’s website says that the virtual performance will allow their loyal fanbase to “celebrate the holiday season in style and say goodbye to what has been a challenging and arduous year for everyone, everywhere.” Alarm lead singer and guitarist Mike Peters adds: “To be able to bring the band and the fans together at this special time of year and perform a virtual Alarm Gathering concert from our home to yours, is something myself and the band have been dreaming about ever since our collective worlds were turned upside down by the global lockdown earlier in 2020.
Peters, who has also assumed vocal duties for Coloursound, Dead Men Walking and Scottish folk-rockers Big Country in the past, goes on to say: “This will be an occasion to turn up the volume, crack open the drinks, invite your friends and family around to the house and have a rocking good time at Christmas. I have always loved this time of year, and to think we have this opportunity to all come together as one big Alarm family through the wonders of the internet is a Christmas miracle all of it’s own.”
2021 looks set to be a bumper year for the North Walian outfit who are best-known for their succession of 1980s top 40 singles, including 68 Guns, Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke, Spirit of ’76, Rain In The Summertime and A New South Wales. Next year the band will mark their fortieth anniversary with shows in Rhyl, Cardiff and New York City before appearing at the Isle of Wight Festival in June.
Mike Peters will also be hosting a series of unique musical ‘staycations’ in his home village of Dyserth in Denbighshire. Peters outlined the idea behind the niche concept on The Alarm website, saying “It’s looking increasingly likely that the idea of touring and playing ’normal’ packed out Mike Peters / Alarm shows around the world is not going to resume properly until at least 2022 and so, I thought that I could host a series of Staycation Weekends with acoustic concerts in the style of mini Gatherings, with a truly intimate acoustic / story teller feel to the evenings, and in my own words and music, tell the entire story of The Alarm history from 1981 – 2021”
The fortieth anniversary celebrations will also continue into the following year, with a series of Alarm gigs in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Glasgow rescheduled from 2020 to March and April 2022. Peters recently spoke of his excitement at getting back on stage, telling The Aquarian:”We certainly will praise the day we can get back out on the road…It’s going to be a new frontier. There might be a chance to play gigs to 50 people, 10 people, or 5,000 people, who knows what it’s going to be? But The Alarm is prepared to work within the guidelines. Hopefully our audience will come with us, and we’ll find a new way to play rock and roll in 2021.”
